Columnist Jon Ralston: Drug benefits medicine leaves bad taste

Wednesday, June 21, 2000 | 9:33 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Confused about all the rhetoric over drug benefits? Feel like you're trying to decipher your doctor's handwriting on your Rx? Or perhaps you've read all the news accounts and press releases, and have listened to the sound bites, and have concluded that curling up with "Ulysses" might be less mind-numbing?

Good news. The doctor is in. And this one makes house calls, as long as you are a Sun subscriber or can log onto the website from your computer. Here's a series of prescriptions that can be refilled until November, not guaranteed to alleviate your nausea but sure to soothe your aching head.

These are pills that Democrats and Republicans don't want you to swallow, lest you become aware of the political placebos they've been spooning out.

Prescription No. 1: Always beware major policy debates on the cusp of an election season.

Policy differences exist on the Medicare prescription drug front. But this war is about politics, pure and simple. You have the usual choice vs. government regulation divide between Republicans and Democrats. But this is an issue that thrills Democrats and terrifies Republicans.

Glen Bolger, a GOP pollster, gave a presentation to the House Republican Conference a couple of weeks ago and one of his handouts put it succinctly: "Democrats enjoy a huge generic advantage as the party best perceived as being able to handle this issue." And as Bolger pointed out in his briefing, the issue allows the Democrats to mobilize seniors -- just as they tried to do a couple of election cycles ago with their Medicare demagoguery.

Prescription No. 2: Don't expect any shame when elections are at stake.

No need to look all the way to Capitol Hill; just look at what's happening in Nevada. Senate candidate Ed Bernstein, desperate for an issue to catapult him into contention with front-running John Ensign, trundled down to Mexico with a busload of oldsters to dramatize the issue. The media dutifully went along. Ensign, whose pollster coincidentally is Bolger, was not invited along for the ride.

Then there's the brouhaha between Gov. Kenny Guinn, whose prescription drug program has been slow to get off the ground, and Rep. Shelley Berkley, who thought it would be a good idea to score points by attacking the elected official with the highest approval rating in the state. (Note to self: Prepare for call from Mayor Oscar "86 percent approval rating" Goodman.) Berkley, unless she tamps down the feud with Guinn, could be the only Democrat in the country to lose the partisan edge on the issue.

Prescription No. 3: Beware "moderates" bearing gifts.

Whenever the parties clash on a major initiative, the rush to the middle ensues, with various cliques vying for media attention as the reasonable alternative. A group of House Republicans snagged a couple of Democrats and presented a counterproposal this week and called it bipartisan. Then, Nevada's own Sen. Richard Bryan got into the act by signing onto a "bipartisan" proposal with other "moderate" senators. Only one Republican latched onto the plan, but that was enough for Bryan and the other Democrats to make it seem like they were reaching out.

The problem with these attempts at finding middle ground is that compromise does the Democrats no good in an election year. They don't want a solution right away; they want to be able to keep pounding away at the Republicans. Find an answer next year, they surely whisper. Why? As Bolger's presentations showed, one of the key points from focus groups he discovered is this: "Republicans aren't doing anything to help seniors." So why should the Democrats help the GOP Congress look good?

Have a better idea now of what this is all about? I know, it tastes a little like castor oil. But there's only one cure for what ails you, folks: Close your eyes and pray November comes fast.